The Half Moon
by Hero McAllen
Summary: *UPDATED* Ninth 'A Goddess Three' story...I promise a good read! Has a lot of Gerudo culture in this one and the death of Rauru. Please R/R!
1. The Path of A Gerudo Maiden

AN: Okay! Ninth story in 'A Goddess Three'! Huzzah! Well, huzzah for me who has actually stuck with this long enough to write all that I have, and huzzah to the few people who read it! *grin* Anyway, another one of those "can't be apart of the previous story and is kind of odd to be one on its own". But I made it on it's own anyhow! Yeah, Fin goes with the Gerudo for healing and Rauru…well, something major happens with Rauru…you'll just have to read! Oh, and review, yes, lots of reviews…

The Half Moon

_Four months, eleven days_

Chapter One: The Path of A Gerudo Maiden

                  On the eve of the waxing moon dark robed figures departed from their chambers and glided outside into the brilliant silvery moonlight. With them was led a small figure dressed in a heavy shadowed cloak with the white of a virgin warrior peeking out from underneath. Her image was hidden in the swirl of the others around her as they made their processional way up the side of the canyon to the Fire Hollow at the top where it became flat. No one spoke and the white clad figure shivered underneath her dark mantle as the moon showed gleaming above. 

When they reached the expansion of the summit her eyes were blinded by the brilliance of the flames and she flinched, looking away from them to save her sight. It was a ritual of healing for the soul, what the Gerudo have never bothered naming since for each person who sought it the ritual was different and left them changed in different ways. The women joined the others that were already present by silently spreading themselves around the fire forming a tight ring. The young woman gulped hard and could feel her heart beat in her ears as the fire crackled and burned with intensity much larger than its size. One of the dark robed figures stepped out from the rest and opened a bag of incense that hung from her waist, grabbing a handful and casting it out over the flames. The sweet and heavy scent of Foxglove and Lavender wafted up the girl's nose and made her more dizzy than she had already come to be. 

The fire guttered and swarmed with a life of its own and cast its golden light onto the faces of the sisterhood, hidden almost completely beneath the dark covers of their robes. A wind blew across the ground as the woman who cast the herbs turned to face her, as if she commanded the wind with the simple movement of her gestures. The hood fell from her head and the fiery hair blazed brighter in the light. The lone girl's core tightened underneath the woman's gaze but she stood erect and stone faced like she had been trained to do. _Goddesses give me strength not to falter! Her spirit cried._

 Tiamra's voice was lower than usual, a deep commanding tone that sent a shiver up and down the young woman's spine as she called her name, Rae Lawen. The Gerudo leader stepped forward and gestured her head to the two women standing behind Rae Lawen and Rae Lawen felt the heavy cloak being lifted from around her body. The relief from the weight and extra heat was welcoming, but she could not help but feel more vulnerable without its cover to hide her. The virgin whites she had been dressed in were much cooler in the open air and she could feel the desert winter wind caress against her skin. 

         "Rae Lawen," Tiamra boomed, pulling all of her mastery around herself to heighten the glory and power of the ceremony. "You have come to seek to erase the wrongs that man has done to you, do you not?" Rae Lawen stiffened and felt bared naked before them all.

         "I have," her voice was weak when she found it, but grew stronger while she remembered the words she had been instructed to say. "I've come to seek peace with what was taken from me."

         "And what was taken from you?" Tiamra replied in observance.

         "My maidenhood," the young woman echoed with a pang of her own sorrow, "and my self-worth."

                  Tiamra's face had now taken on the appearance of an emotionless vessel, which the unseen power used to flow into. 

         "But you wear the virgin whites of the Gerudo, only the maidens are clothed in them. If you are not a virgin then why have you been given these?" Rae Lawen gulped hard and blinked back the strain of the fire on her eyes.

         "I don't know," she answered, apprehensive for her declaration was the only thing she had been trained to say. 

         "You wear the virgin whites because no man who forces himself on a woman has the power to take anything from her!" Tiamra's voice resonated off of something far in the distance and whether it was real or Rae Lawen was just dazzled by Tiamra's power. Thunder seemed to echo off in the distance as well. 

Tiamra turned and lifted her arms before the fire and the other Gerudo women gathered there and breathed in the energy of the flames themselves. Her dark mantel rose and fell with her breath and the cool wind rustled through her shorn red hair. _Truly there is a power riding on the wind tonight! Tiamra thought to herself as she breathed deeply in rhythm. She opened her eyes to the stars above and the great, silvery orb that was the moon. The woman, whom to Tiamra seemed no more that a girl, stood before her silently, her small stature enveloped in the white robes and her brown hair streaked with natural sunlight unbound and untamed around her shoulders. She was not the young woman who had come to join them in the months before. Her body was hardened muscle now from her training and fit compactly onto her short and solid frame. Though she did not have the overpowering height, as most Gerudo were known for, or the gliding slenderness of the Hylian maids, there was an unmistakable elegance and grace in her movements. __Men are unable to see the beauty in every woman Tiamra snorted. _

Tiamra went back and stood close to Rae Lawen, in reality not the tallest of the Gerudo either but wrapped in the commanding power of the Goddesses she seemed to tower over everyone. "Just as the Great Goddesses that are our Mothers, we need no man to command the ways of our lives!" At this the other women made their first sounds and let out a whoop of agreement.  "We are all born of the woman's womb, and to violate the place of our birth is to commit an unforgivable sin against the Gods! We are all daughters of the Goddesses and answer to no man!" Tiamra continued with an empowering pace. "Rae Lawen, the man who caused pain to you took nothing from you because you offered him nothing! A man can only take from our bodies what we offer for it is with us, the women, who hold the gift of life! Do you understand this truth?" Rae Lawen willed back the shudders that struck her core at every word. But the words did hold a ring of truth that, like the fire, began to kindle warmth within her. 

         "I understand, but," she paused, "I need help, the break in my soul feels so large." And despite how she had learned to suppress the feelings, she knew she could not do so forever. Tiamra nodded to one of the women who came forward with a silver cup filled with a mulberry colored liquid and handed it to Tiamra. Tiamra opened a second smaller pouch and sprinkled the contents over the surface of the solution. She tipped the glass and poured a small sum into her cupped palm and cast it over the fire with a crackling hiss. With a look of satisfaction the cup was handed to Rae Lawen and she was bade to drink. 

"Before you do so, do you know what you are asking of yourself?" Tiamra asked her as the cup rested in Rae Lawen's steady hands. She nodded silently and lifted the chalice to her lips. _Too not is to hide forever a voice chanted in the back of her mind. The liquid was warm and sweetened with honey but with an overpowering bitter aftertaste that made Rae Lawen's tongue protest. She recognized the faint taste of dalucody, a sleeping herb, and sensed her eyelids becoming heavy in trance. As she collapsed two women caught her and held her up drifting in between the dream world and waking, but never fully in one or the other. Tiamra leaned over her and calmly spoke commands to the others and Rae Lawen could only stare blankly into the flames of the fire. As she stared she did not know how many minutes passed, or perhaps it was hours, but the flames started to dance into images she could see.  _

Her heart was pounding feverishly in her breast but the pounding sensation of it was far away from where Rae Lawen thought she was. The flames seemed to dance all around her now and she could feel its glowing warmth, but it did not burn her. Before her eyes she saw the image of Joshuan years before, when he was but a young boy not old enough to touch the lowest branch of their favorite climbing tree. He was laughing and holding his arms above his head reaching for her and she bent down and pulled him into the tree. She laughed but was not sure whether she had done so in her vision or out loud. The form blurred and with it a great pang of sorrow for the loss of times gone by, when everything had not yet changed. 

The vision shifted and she stood with Link on the ledge of the cliff overlooking Hyrule Field for the first time. The sun rose quickly over the horizon and blurred her vision again as another reflection sharpened and she saw _him, his black greasy figure slumped over her and Rae Lawen's breath caught in her throat and every muscle tightened in her body with panic. Tiamra and the other women added their strength to hers and watched with a cool professionalism as Rae Lawen hunched in shudders before the fire, lost in her waking dream. _

         She could not get him off of her and the smell of him that Rae Lawen could never forget was choking her. It was real; she was there again! How could she relieve the pain if she was not allowed to forget it? She was scared and alone, all alone again. She struggled with the image trying to change it, trying to make him go away. The strong scent of feces and urine was pounded upon her again, bringing tears to her eyes. The heat from the fire was getting warmer before she realized it and soon it felt as though it was searing her skin. _It is the fire again, what do my visions mean, always of fire?  The fire was blazing brighter and even Tiamra and the others could see it and stood with trepidation as the flames grew higher and higher. _

_What is happening to you, my sister? Tiamra's soul cried out as Rae Lawen uttered her first audible screams. These practices had been done over centuries, and not only of Gerudo, but any woman who had been wronged and sought help, but never had Tiamra ever heard of something so divine taking place. As Rae Lawen's tears stained her cheeks and she hugged her arms in misery the flames grew higher and higher and her waking dream carried her deeper and deeper into herself. Her family was there, watching her and she waited for the fire that would spring forth from her like before to envelop them all, but it never came. The man who had taken her was before her now, his dirty face grinning foolishly at her. She felt a terrible surge of hate rush through her and as she looked down at her hand someone placed a knife in it. She looked up and saw the face of the Goddess Din and She was smiling at her reassuringly._

_"You know thy destiny, My child," She said and Rae Lawen understood what she was to do. With the knife in hand she could feel the power surging through her and she thrust it into the man's gut. He fell to one knee with a look of terror on his face and for a moment Rae Lawen saw her reflection in his eyes and it was indeed terrifying to behold. It was her own face, but the face of the Goddess Din was present as well, at times seeming to occupy the same image. The eyes were sharp and turbulent and blazed with the travail of power. The man slumped and tumbled over, his eyes now loosing their spark of life and he disappeared in the next instant in a fiery blaze. Rae Lawen's breath eased now and her spirit felt lighter and she could sense the illuminating glow of triumph flowing through her as if she were no more than branches on a tree. Her entire being lifted and the vision shifted once more.  _

         She was with her mother, at home sitting in front of the fire with her head cradled in her mother's lap like when she was a little girl. Rae Lawen felt contentment like she had not felt in a long time, but when she looked up and saw the face of her mother she was dressed in the garments of Din. The scene shifted again this time to a dazzling white plane and there stood Zelda, the Princess of Hyrule, and Link, the Hero of Time before her, but both in their shadows stood the Great Goddesses Nayru and Farore, who also bore the face of her mother. Rae Lawen had no need to turn and see for she could feel the presence of Din behind her.

_"What does this mean?" She whispered and to that it was Nayru who replied._

_"It is thy destiny, My child," Her voice was light and pure and Her blue robes were extravagantly decorated with embroidery with the symbol of the Triforce resting in a small pattern on Her breast. Rae Lawen's mind tried to grasp for a hold on anything it could._

_"The funeral pyre! I saw my face in the funeral pyre that night! Is that to be my destiny?" her voice trembled. Farore stepped out from behind the lifeless image of Link, Her face solemn and noble._

_"What thou hast seen is what shall be, all things will come full circle," Her voice was strong and dauntless, like all things that were associated with Her name. Din stepped out from behind Rae Lawen, still with the face of her mother and smiled and placed a hand on the young woman's heart and then one on Her own. She was powerful; Rae Lawen could feel that staggering power flowing into her and around her, taking her breath away. Din was a vision of red sweeping before her eyes, Her face both capable of the most forbidding snarl and the most compassionate smile. _

_"My blessing is thy soul, thy blood is to My essence," Din kissed her brow and finally Rae Lawen was released from her vision._


	2. Out of the Fog

AN: Hm…still very little reviews…maybe I should work on better summaries…or my story is just uninteresting to the few…oh well! *grins* Yeah, this is what I like to call a 'filler chapter', where nothing _major_ happens, but I think they are relative to the character and/or explains a little, maybe not really important, section of the story more. It's just what I do…don't ask me why.

Chapter Two: Out of the Fog

                  Laelaps licked her hand and slowly she arose from sleep. She was again in her room, alone except for her faithful dog. Her body still felt drained, but her soul felt lighter and that was enough to lift her from bed. Pulling on a coarse brown tunic that despite its texture kept her amazingly cool in the desert air, and placing her crest on her forehead she walked across the room to where there was already food and drink placed on the small table for her.  But her usually good appetite had left her and she gave most of it to Laelaps who happily took it. 

She couldn't really get a clear focus on what had happened last night, like her rape it was all a blur, bits and pieces thrown together. But there was a definite change about her, so she knew it must have been successful. Tiamra would tell her later that it was all too common to not remember the exact images of a waking dream. Eventually Rae Lawen was visited by the medicine women who inspected her, deemed her fit and well of mind, and then left her again as quickly as they had come. After they had left, Rae Lawen wandered out of her room, located in one of the front levels of the Fortress, with Laelaps padding faithfully along her beside her. 

                  Her mind wasn't in a fog like she thought it would be, on the contrary, it was clearer than she could remember it being in some time. A wonder. Even the sunshine looked clearer to her and the happiness in Laelaps's bark as she raced down the grounds to where the young maidens were enjoying some free time. Laelaps had certainly become a quick favorite among the Gerudo girls and women and that made Rae Lawen very pleased. Leaning against one of the walls under the protection of the cool shade was a dark hair Gerudo woman, not much younger than her. 

She was a Black Gerudo, one of the children born to the Nation who retained part of their father's looks despite the Ritual of Purification their mother's had done to purge their womb of such things. It happened more often than people realized, only that the dazzling red hair caught the attention first. Rae Lawen herself was a White Gerudo, expected you ignored her half Hylian heritage for the moment which gave her lighter skin to begin with. Her brown hair, the usual judge of whether one was white or black, was pulled back loosely, not having cared much to do anything about it this morning. Omphale saw her coming and smirked, her mood restricting her to produce even a false smile. Rae Lawen didn't think anything of it though for she knew it was just Omphale's way.

         "You look well rested," Omphale shrugged and brushed a bit of her raven dark hair off her bare, unadorned forehead. Much to her own personal humiliation, Omphale had not successfully completed the Training Ground on her first venture. Rae Lawen often thought that this was a main source of the enormous chip on Omphale's shoulder, if nothing else. The fact that she herself had completed the Ground not only on her fist attempt, but without proper training (which Rae Lawen still swore, though now out of modesty, was luck), she often wondered why Omphale would talk to her at all.

         "I am, but you look like you've had a tough one," Rae Lawen leaned against the wall too and watched the younger maidens play their games. Together, the two of them, one known as black and one known as white, though neither of that was of notice or importance in Gerudo society, had found a common bond and grew a companionship from that. Omphale was sarcastic and bitter most of the time. When Rae Lawen was feeling more like herself (as few of times as that had happened during her coming to the Fortress), she greatly irritated Omphale. Rae Lawen had the habit of being friendly and kind and even goofy when it struck her, which was always feeble behavior to Omphale. Omphale found her more agreeable when she was in a bitter, reclusive mood, which for most of the time Rae Lawen was. Omphale, though she always pretended to take the least bit of interest in everything, thought that the two personalities were not of the same mind.

         "You try sleeping in a room with three other giggling girls and try not to have a 'tough one'," Omphale snorted and watched the younger girls playing as well. Rae Lawen, should she have her way, could have burst into song for the first time in months, but knew she must keep it to herself less she wanted to be alone again. 

         "What do they have to be so happy about, right Omphale?" Rae Lawen picked off a stray strand of her tunic and threw them into the wind. It hung in the air for a moment before falling away across the yard.

         "You certainly are in a mood today," the girl raised an eyebrow curiously, for a moment forgetting how she was supposed to be uninterested in everything.

         "I guess I am," Rae Lawen was on the verge of hugging Omphale ecstatically, but held it in. 

         "Short of words too," Omphale replied simply.

         "You're one to talk!" Rae Lawen shot back with a half-smile. "You say less than," she paused and knew she didn't have the right energy to argue. Any other time she would have, but not today and she thought it was surprising that Omphale wasn't more taken aback at her obvious change, for it should have been clear as day on her face. "Oh, never mind! Aren't you supposed to be with Vesta learning your herb lore?" Rae Lawen gave up on her and Omphale stiffened and crossed her arms.

         "Don't remind me Lawen. I'd rather sit through another of Hestia's lectures on childbearing than about some stupid plant that grows out in the middle of nowhere," and she said this very bitterly. All she was interested in doing was taking her place among her sisters with her initiation on the Ground. Her failure of it before had rested with her heavily, causing her to build more emotional barriers around herself and indeed she was as threatening as a thorny rose.  Rae Lawen, on the other hand, had always found herb lore intriguing since her mother began to teach her when she was young. She knew what plants could cure a stomachache to kill a man. She shook her head and lifted herself from the wall.

         "Like it or not you'd better go before Tiamra gets on you and she won't be as easy as Vesta and you know it," Rae Lawen lectured Omphale herself, feeling the need to since she was older. 

         "And what are _you going to be doing?" Omphale glowered, accepting that she was indeed going to have to go._

         "I'll probably go back to my room and get Laelaps some water. Now go," she pointed a finger toward the nearest door and Omphale sulked away, grumbling the whole time.

                  Rae Lawen returned to her room and lay blissfully on her bed, Laelaps on the end. She was whole again. She didn't know how, but she didn't care. In fact, the feelings of shame and self-loathing were nothing more than memories to her, which she couldn't put into words. She was just happy again.  


	3. A Message For Wisdom

AN: OoOo…Now we're on to some plot moving! 

Chapter Three: A Message For Wisdom

                  Rauru's breathing was becoming more and more hampered each day. Zelda stuck close to him, in case fate would take him sooner than expected. It brought tears to her eyes every time blood would start to appear on his handkerchiefs from the constant coughing. It made her miss her father terribly at the same time, wondering how much time she had spent here in the Sacred Realm, time wasted when she could have only a few more years with him. No, her duty as the Seventh Sage was not a waste of time and she knew that, but she missed him so. 

                  Rauru was sleeping, his chest rising and falling in a slow rhythm for now, but Zelda knew that could change at any moment. She was so tired though, having stayed up watching him for hours now. The dying fire created a sweet, lulling music that made Zelda's eyelids sink lower and lower each minute until finally she drifted off to sleep sitting in Rauru's high-backed chair. 

                  _She was overwhelmed with such a sensation of sorrow that it brought tears brimming to her eyes in seconds. She stumbled through the brush till she broke through to an opening of soft dirt and the enormous expanse of the night sky. There was an old woman kneeling at the foot of an unlit funeral pyre, crying bitterly. A figure was covered with a shroud and lay on top of the platform silent with death. As Zelda approached the pyre, a blue-clad figure came into view on the opposite side. The Figure stood still, a sad expression on Her face. The tears would not stop rolling down Zelda's cheeks and she could barely feel them anymore as she stared at the Vision. The blue veil lifted Her head and Zelda saw that She was crying too._

_         "We are connected, you and I," Naryu's voice was calm and musical as She stared deeply into Zelda's eyes. The Triforce mark glowed so brightly on the back of Zelda's hand now that it burned. Naryu cast Her hand toward the body and at Her command the shroud flew off to the ground, exposing to Zelda's eyes the form underneath. "We weep for the lost. We mourn the departed." Naryu spoke again with a sorrowful lilt to Her speech. Zelda drew in a gasp of horror as the cloth fell and the face of Ganondorf came into clear view._

_         "I will not mourn the enemy of my country!" Zelda's voice shook with anger, but the tears were still streaming down her face and the sadness had gripped her heart with an icy hand that closed tighter and tighter around it. "Ganondorf is the son of evil! I do not weep for him!" _

_         "Will thou not weep for the innocent?" Naryu was standing next to her now, watching Ganondorf's body being engulfed by the flames that had appeared in an instant. The old woman still wept bitterly at his side, face buried in her hands. The woman looked up and let out such a scream of agony that the stars above seemed to shake at her call. Zelda wiped away more tears and was not sure if she had heard right…had the woman said 'my son'? The scene whirled around and now Zelda found herself in Rauru's chamber's again, but his bed was empty. Zelda thought she was too late until Naryu stepped forward again from behind her. _

_         "Thou must lead them," She spoke softly, "the Sage of Light is not long for this world. He will come anon, but nay in time for the challenge at hand." Zelda turned and Naryu faced her._

         "What challenge?" she whispered, "You showed me Ganondorf dead…if he's to come back…but I'm not ready to lead anyone." Naryu smiled and laughed, kissing Zelda on the forehead.

_         "Thou hast My Wisdom to guide thee, dost thy doubt My Power?"_

_         "No!"_

_         "Then believe in thyself child for thou wilt lead them to victory. All things will come full circle."_

***

                  Nabooru loved the rush of power that she felt when she was with him. The raw animal energy, the strong muscles of two young bodies pressed together…it was maddening. Out of all of her sisters, she was the one he chose to be his consort. The long nights in his chambers played vivid images in her mind and she desperately tried to push them away. She didn't want to remember now. 

Ganondorf had not only betrayed her when he claimed Aglalia as his new consort, leaving her rejected in front of all of her sisters, he broke any feelings of true romantic love her heart would ever know. He was a pig and she loathed him. But he had gotten what was coming to him three years ago and not once had she regretted it. After all, he made her what she was. If it weren't for him she wouldn't have left the Fortress to become a Lone Wolf, isolated away in the Spirit Temple and away from her sisters. But there were some things about her character she supposed she could thank him for, but she would die before she did it. 

                  It was all Koume and Kotake that changed him, the witches. They had been the medicine women at the time, two old Gerudo that dallied in strange concoctions and of the sort and Nabooru had been weary of them since she was a child. Even her mother and elder sister's had warned her of them. The youngest maids were afraid and scurried out of the way when they were coming in their direction. They poisoned Ganondorf's mind and turned him away from his responsibilities as leader of their Nation, and from her, and to something so dark it would lead to so many wasted lives, his included. She even felt remorse for Aglalia, whom for all any of her or her sisters knew, had been killed by Ganondorf himself when he tired of her. 

The two of them were evil, and had turned Ganondorf evil too for their own wild plots and ambitions. The King of the Gerudo's did after all, come only once every hundred years. Nabooru often thought that Koume and Kotake, having been the midwives for the King's birth, must have killed Ganondorf's mother after with their herbs. So many women died in childbed it was never questioned, but it was all for a plot so that they could raise him unopposed. 

         "You're a fool Nabooru," she mumbled to herself and threw her candlestick across the room with a loud clatter. She couldn't stop thinking about him though. It was like he had invaded her mind for the moment, tormenting her with times when she had thought she loved him. Nabooru clutched the sides of her head and shook it back and forth violently, trying to get his voice out of her head.

         _"Nabooru," she heard him say clear as a bell in her mind. So clear that she looked frantically around the room for him, thinking he was there. No, he was locked away in the Dark Realm for all eternity, he couldn't get out. But somehow she felt the longing for him again, the feeling of his hands on her…Nabooru jumped up from her chair and with one strong swipe threw off all of the books in her shelf in a tempered rage, leaving her panting and drained. There came a soft knock at her door and the blue-skinned figure of Ruto poked her head in to see what the commotion was. Nabooru was standing in the center of the room, eyes wild and seething through her clenched teeth._

         "What do you want!?" Nabooru snapped, going to a wall and ripping off the Gerudo tapestry, rolling it and throwing the content in Ruto's direction in the doorframe, aiming far away enough were it would not hit her, but startle her all the same. Ruto indeed did jump back with a shriek and glowered at Nabooru from halfway behind the door. 

         "Calm down you psychotic Gerudo! I'm only here to bring a message from Zelda!" Ruto opened the door a little wider when she could see Nabooru's expression loosen a bit.

         "What does she want?" Nabooru sighed and flopped down into her chair after she had turned it right side up again. "Has Rauru bit-the-big-one yet?" And at this she grinned mischievously because she knew very well that Rauru was still with them, if he had passed on she would have felt his energy leave. Ruto returned her sarcastic grin and crossed her arms in disgust.

         "Really, I don't know how you can joke about things like that," she snorted, "and no, Zelda just says that she needs to speak with all of us right away so you better come." And with that Ruto turned and huffed away down the corridor.

                  They gathered in Rauru's chamber because now he was unable to lift himself from bed. It was not a matter that his body was weak, for in the Sacred Realm they had no bodies, only mental representations, but his mind was so sickly that he could hardly do anything anymore. Nabooru was the last to come in; having taken her time thinking that Zelda's message was no more than her usual 'Rauru is getting worse' summoning. Obviously he was getting worse she wanted to yell at her, he was dying, what did she think would happen!? Nabooru had that thought running in her mind as the walked into the room and immediately felt the energy from the other Sages and knew that this was not of the normal gatherings. 

Her movements slowed so she did not make an effort to take her usual place on the opposite side of the room and hung around by the table by the door. Zelda could feel the ebbing tension from the Spirit Sage and finding herself unable not to care, tried to push the feelings Nabooru was unintentionally transferring away for later evaluation. There were more pressing matters at hand now.  

         "How is everyone?" Zelda's voice shook and her white, slender hands fumbled in her lap nervously. Impa obviously did not have to see how Zelda was acting to know how she was feeling. Emotions and thoughts between them could flow as easily as water when they let their barriers down. And even then, Impa was always able to know how Zelda was feeling, as a Sheikah and as the only mother Zelda had ever known. 

         "We are fine Zelda," Impa reached out at touched the fair-haired beauty with her mind, trying to ease the tension she was feeling. Zelda welcomed her friend, her mother in and felt stronger with her added strength. When she opened her eyes again she took a deep breath and began.

         "I've had a vision, while sleeping here at Rauru's bedside," Zelda gestured, "the Goddess of Wisdom visited me." Ruto gasped over dramatically and raised her pearl toned, blue and white hands to her lips. Nabooru just rolled her eyes and crossed her arms impatiently. Zelda always did take her time getting to the point.   

         "What did She say?" Saria's eyes had gone wide.

         "She told me that I was to lead after Rauru has passed on and---"

         "Well we all knew that Zelda!" Nabooru snapped and unintentionally slapped her hand down harder on the table than she meant too. Zelda ignored her.

         "She also told me that Rauru is not long for this world either---"

         "We knew that too! Come on---"

         "Shut up Nabooru!" Ruto shrieked and Nabooru was just in the right mood to fight over anything, disrespectful behavior for a Gerudo, but right now she didn't much care. She was about to retaliate but suddenly felt herself being forced down into a chair and could not rise again.

         "Enough Nabooru!" Impa's voice boomed and Nabooru knew now that she must bite her temper. Impa released her mental hold and Nabooru still sat sulkily in the chair and would not get up. Zelda, now that the commotion was over, continued. 

         "She also showed me Ganondorf…he was dead and a woman who I think was this mother wept at the side of his funeral pyre. Naryu asked me if I would not weep for the innocent. I didn't understand, I still don't. Then She told me that I was to lead you all in a great challenge, but wouldn't tell me what. She said, 'Thy hast My Wisdom to guide thee…believe in thyself and you wilt lead them to victory. All will come full circle'." Zelda sat silently and let these words mull over in everyone's mind.

         "Then you must believe in yourself Zelda, and trust in the Goddesses power fully," Rauru had been still the entire time, in fact no one had really noticed he was conscious at all until now. Zelda turned to him and stared questioningly.

         "What do you mean Rauru?" Her voice wavered and her hands still trembled slightly.

         "I mean that the Goddesses would not send you a vision if you were not meant to follow it. Do not try to analyze what the Sight means, just hold it close, and when the time comes you will understand. Trust me," he took a long pause, trying to gather his strength, "I know what I speak of." 

         "But the vision can't be true, Ganondorf's mother is dead! I know because I lived in the Fortress my entire life! She died in childbed with him!" Nabooru spoke again, this time a little calmer than before.

         "I said do not try to analyze!" Rauru cut her off and then went into another fit of coughing. Impa rushed to his side and placed a hand over him, feeling for his energy, which was erratic and guttering like a flame. She looked at Zelda and then to Darunia who was standing nearby and told them again what they already knew. It would not be long.

AN: Just a friendly reminder to REVIEW!!!!!!!


	4. Good Morning, My Daughter

Chapter Four: Hello, My Daughter

            "Four months, she's been there for four months!" Greysir shouted in his sorrow. "How can my daughter be getting better if she is away from those who love her for so long!" He rubbed his hands over his face and over the thick stubble of a neglected beard. "I want her home, now!"

            "Don't you think we all do?!" Snapped Lindie, slamming down a pot of boiled roots. "Your yelling isn't going to change that! Now stop it and eat!" All at the table fell silent and slowly began to fill up their plates with the simple dishes. Since Loraefin had left them, Lindie had not the energy or the heart to put much into her meals. But then again, no one had much of an appetite lately anyway. 

The construction on the tunnel had been complete for two weeks now, despite delays due to random tremors that had been scattered about the last few months. They had shaken the caves quite a bit, causing few minor cave-ins, but since had been reinforced. None of the Hylians save for a few farmers and Royal Officials ever came into Murieope though. And after the attack of Loraefin, Greysir, Lindie, nor anyone else for that matter had not left Eidua either. 

Joshuan had been the quietest of them all, very rarely speaking at meals when arguments of Loraefin came up. Guilt ate at him. What kind of brother was he if he couldn't protect his own sister from such things? She was strong and certainly far from frail, but she was also too small to stand up to them, two grown men. He imagined it sometimes when the guilt was too much for him, as a way of penance somehow, and she would have been overpowered within a minute, crushed under their weight and vulnerable to their dirty hands. That was the way he imagined it because he did not know what really happened. 

No one talked about the burns on the men.

"Joshuan, I thought I told you to feed the dogs!" Lindie snapped again and pressed her fingers to her temples to try and stifle her irritation and longing for her daughter. 

"I did," Joshuan looked up, defending himself quietly. The dogs only barked like that when they were hungry, but Joshuan had fed them not an hour ago.  It was a terrible racket that drove the already present tension higher. It even forced Greysir out of his seat and he threw the door open making it bang against the wall on its hinges so he could yell at them. He shouted at them but they were excited about something and would not stop. They took off running from the house in an ecstatic furry. Lindie had joined her husband in the doorway and stared after the dogs in wonder.

"What has gotten into them?" she asked.

"I don't know," Greysir replied and walked a few steps out onto the path. Horses' hooves were trotting down the hard-packed earthen road through the middle of town. Greysir's heart jumped into his throat for an instant with the thought that it might be whom he wished it was. 

            She rode in smiling despite herself. Balius trotted along happy to be home after such a long parting. Laelaps scampered ahead and promptly knocked Styx off of his feet in full stride as she galloped home. She ran flying into the house yipping excitedly and jumping up into Joshuan's lap, attacking his face with her tongue. People began to come out of their houses and see what they commotion was that was disturbing their quiet evening. They certainly were surprised when they found it. 

"Loraefin!" Greysir shouted and ran to his daughter, pulling her down off of Balius and grabbing her into an embrace. Rae Lawen immediately melted into Loraefin again as she grasped her father with all her might. When he let her go she smiled at him and told him she was all right so he didn't need to ask.  And she was fine. As she walked into the house Greysir marveled at the changes. She was harder, he noticed that when he hugged her, firm muscle had replaced the softer stuff she was made of when she left. And her eyes were more intense. Not only intense he could see how they could be fierce. What struck him harder than anything though was that she was a woman now, a grown, strong, independent woman. 

"Megeara!" Loraefin opened her arms just in time to catch the redheaded flash that had shot through the open door. Megeara hugged her extremely hard and Loraefin was soon bombarded with two other, smaller bodies. She looked down and saw little Alari, not so little anymore but still the baby of the village, and Jack, who was not much older. "Let me breathe you three! I've just walked in the door!" Loraefin was grinning madly and her mother came up and cupped her face, looking deeply into her eyes. 

"Are you…alright?" She asked, her voice shaking with motherly concern, "you've come back with no word…How could Tiamra just let you go off by yourself! I thought her more responsible than that!" Loraefin hugged her mother as the tears started to well in Lindie's eyes.

"Mother, I'm fine," the gray-blue eyes struck straight into Lindie's, allowing the mother to see that everything was alright, "really, I mean." And at that her mother truly did burst into tears and clutched her daughter so fiercely that Loraefin had to brace herself against it. 

"My daughter! My daughter is home!" Lindie sobbed until Greysir came and took her crying on his shoulder instead. He beamed with fatherly pride as Loraefin reluctantly let her go. Joshuan had been frozen in his seat during the entire whirlwind of a reunion. It was now that he got stiffly up and met Loraefin's gaze as he turned. She was the one who embraced him, holding him more tightly than the others. She didn't need to say anything to him, for the words were plain on his face as well as hers. She had missed his brotherly companionship. Laelaps had taken her rightful spot by the fire already and was sound asleep with Acantha lying devotedly near. 

"You're here to stay, right?" Joshuan wanted to be reassured. Loraefin nodded and let him go, resting her hands still on his shoulders.

"I asked them to leave me when we got through the tunnel, which looks great by the way," she shot an amused smile, "I didn't want to make a big entrance." 

"_Bre'kenaar, you're hard," Joshuan smiles sheepishly, squeezing his sister's toughened muscle under her sleeve. Rae Lawen surfaced for a moment but did not stay long. She really didn't answer, but just laughed and walked upstairs leaving everyone else in wonder. She wanted to lie in her own bed for a minute._

AN: Just a friendly reminder to REVIEW!!!!!!! I'll even give you an idea to review! What do you think of Loraefin? Realistic? Mary-Sue? Annoying? :)


	5. Fallen to Darkness

Chapter Five:  Fallen to Darkness

                        After they had calmed Rauru down each of them had gone their separate ways and Ruto opted to stay and watch the waning Light Sage. Zelda had gone to her chambers to rest for the vision had drained her more than she realized. She tried to read to calm her nerves, but could feel her strength leaving her as she sat in the chair and dragged herself to bed. She only had a moment to be weary of sleeping again lest another vision came upon her, but she was out the moment her head settled on the pillow. It was not a long sleep, but Zelda woke up feeling refreshed nonetheless. 

She brushed her hair quickly, never being able to get out of the habits of her actual mortal form, and admired its long, golden strands. Walking along the hallways of the Sacred Realm Zelda did nothing but contemplate her vision, trying very hard to remember everything that happened and in detail. She chanted the words like mantra over and over again to herself, seeking deeper meanings to words that perhaps weren't there. _Do not try to analyze…The memory of__ Rauru's voice interrupted her thoughts, but she couldn't help it, she had to know what it meant. _

            "We are connected, you and I," Zelda traced a finger along the back of her hand where the Triforce mark had burned.

 Yes, she knew that she and the Goddess Naryu were connected in a very special way. Zelda carried within her the piece of Triforce that was Wisdom, the essence of the Great Naryu, left when the Three Goddesses ascended back to the heavens. It made her more spiritually connected with the Goddess than the most devout priest. It was at times an overwhelming existence. She would have had Link to unburden herself on because he carried the Triforce piece for Courage, the essence of Farore, like she carried Wisdom, but it was not often she spoke to him. This was much to her disappointment. And then there was the Triforce of Power, lost forever in a depraved vessel, locked away in the Dark Realm, wasted; useless…trapped inside Ganondorf, the son of evil as far as she was concerned. 

But she didn't want to think of that anymore, she was going to listen to Rauru and not give her vision another thought. All she needed was something else to think about…anything to think about…Zelda turned another corner and found herself standing in the atrium which was flooded with sunlight. In the Sacred Realm, it represented her 'quiet place', the dwelling in her consciousness that was reserved as her escape from the world. Only here could it become something she could touch and feel. Zelda stretched luxuriously and sat at an open bench underneath a climbing rose with pink blossoms, her favorite kind of course. She handled the delicate pedals with her long, slender fingers and her mind rested on a memory of the past…on a memory of _him. _

                        He had given her a rose of the very same type on a summer day; the type of day one would usually set a romantic story in. Zelda looked more closely into the flower, into its fuzzy yellow center and remembered the color of his hair, just like the heart of the bloom.  She was younger then and had fallen in love so easily that even her usually perceptive nature didn't realize it until she had already fallen to deep. 

He was one of Impa's people, the Sheikah, thought to be a forgotten race but not so. They were nomads, drifting along through the Foltuc Mountains bordering between Inis Morgen and Orindaem. She and Impa had taken refuge with them while hiding from Ganondorf, so in a way Zelda could have thanked him. And then there was the accident, rocks everywhere…he disappeared and she never saw him again…Impa had taken her away for it was no longer safe for them there…but what had happened to him? Had he lived? No…she saw the rocks bury him alive…there was no chance he survived and Zelda knew better than to let her heart ache over things she knew couldn't come true. Tears welled in her eyes again and she wiped them away with the back of her hand, clutching the rose close to her heart.

            "Sheik," she whispered, rocking herself gently back and forth, "come back to me…"

                        Lost in her memories Zelda could barely feel anything else…all but one thing. Her head shot up and she bolted from the bench running at full stride through the maze of corridors and bursting into Rauru's chambers. Zelda's heart was beating furiously in her head as she rushed to the bedside, clutching Rauru's hand tightly between her own. Impa shook her head solemnly and watched her old friend slip away into the next life. Zelda kissed each of his hands and fell to her knees, whispering a silent prayer to the Goddesses to keep him safe. Rauru's eyes were closed, and his breathing was becoming fainter and fainter until his chest ceased to rise again. Zelda could feel the overwhelming loss of his consciousness as it departed from their world, and she felt alone. He was gone…Rauru, the Sage of Light, was dead.      

AN: Just a friendly reminder to REVIEW!!!!!!! This is the conclusion of THIS story, not the entire thing. Oh yes, there is another for the few to read! *Thinks to self* There has to be a way to get more reviews…hm…I can't think it's a bad story because the few reviews I have had are very complimentary…so what is it? To long? I personally like a good long read. Oh well, I thank the few :)


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